feed-in-tariffs could emulate European PV success – but at what price?

A bunch of green bloggers got together last week after EcoBuild and as the pints slid down, the conversation got increasingly nerdtastic. It got so bad that drunken consultants were pulling out their laptops (never a good idea in the pub) and gesturing wildly at powerpoint slides as they slurred and babbled incoherently. Not naming names, but we know who we are.

There’s no doubt that the FiT in Germany is responsible for the PV boom there, creating 250k jobs. Other countries such as Spain, Italy, Greece, France, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Bulgaria (Bulgaria?! We’ve been shown up by Bulgaria?) have followed suit.

So what would level of FiT would be required in the UK to match the support shown by a country like, say, Italy?

Typical useful output from PV in central Italy is around 1200 kWh/kWp. The FiT for a domestic installation is around 44¢ depending on how it’s positioned and installed. Allowing for the exchange rate, that’s £470 per year per kWp.

In the UK, typical output per kWp is around 750kWh. Because of a lack of competition and a perverse grant system, capital costs for PV in the UK are higher than elsewhere in Europe. But let’s assume they’re the same. That means to show the same level of support in the UK as you find in Italy, we will have to set the FiT for PV at 62p/kWh.

It sounds high, but because the scheme pays per kWh generated, it would theoretically result in the same total installed capacity as in Italy. It’s just that in the UK, that capacity would result in significantly lower output.

Anyway, 62p. Keep that figure in mind as discussions unfold in the coming weeks.